Page 16 of Once a Killer

“The stickers I put on the shelves and the ceilings? The red ones were audio bugs. The blue ones were cameras.”

“Three of those cameras are mine.” He gave her a grim smile. “Wanted to know if anyone snooped.” He took a deep breath. “Someoneelseput three cameras and a bunch of bugs in my office?” he said, drumming his fingers on the picnic table. “Are you sure?”

“The technology picks up the signals from the cameras and the bugs. So when the device gets a hit, I get a beep.” She studied him for a long moment. Sighed. “Based on their locations, the three cameras are probably focused on your safe and your laptop.”

He clenched his hands. Fury tightened his face. “So someone wants the combination to my safe. And wants to see my computer screen.”

“That would be my guess,” she said cheerfully.

“Then we need to rip every single one of them out of my office,” he said, red-faced. A muscle in his jaw twitched.

“I think we need to wait,” she said. “We need to talk about this when you’re not so angry. We can discuss it here or wait until we get home tonight. I’ve already swept your apartment, and it’s clean.”

He frowned. “When did you do that?”

“When you took your shower this morning.”

His frown turned into a pissed-off scowl. “You could have told me you’d done that.”

“I just did,” she said, understanding why he was angry.

He took several deep breaths. Finally said stiffly, “I apologize. You’re doing your job, and I’m getting angry at you.”

“No apology necessary,” she said. “I get why you’re angry. Personal protection is almost always about protecting your principal from someone he or she already knows. Or at least has had interactions with. So when someone’s targeted you, when someone’s watching and listening to you, it’s a betrayal. It hits where you’re most vulnerable. Most people lash out.”

“I’m not most people,” he said through clenched teeth.

“Yeah, you are. You’re human. But you need to let the anger go. Neutralize the power this person has over you. If you let it become personal, you’re giving them a huge edge.”

His jaw working, he stared at her for a long moment. Finally he drew a deep breath. Blew it out. “You’re right. I can’t make this personal, or they win.”

He kept his gaze on the rough wood of the picnic table for a long moment, and she wanted to see his eyes. Know what he was thinking. Finally he raised his head and a tiny smile flickered over his face. “They didn’t get much from those cameras.” His voice resonated with vicious satisfaction.

“Yeah?”

“I use my hand to shield the lock on my safe whenever I open it. Habit, not because I suspected anything. I don’t keep any technical information about the program in there, but there are some sensitive files. I’ll remove them tonight and take them home.”

“Can you tell me what kinds of files they are? Do they relate to your program?”

“In a way. They’re contracts that several companies have sent me. Offers to buy my program. I’m not going to accept any of the offers, but if anyone got a look at them, they’d have a good idea how much my program was potentially worth.”

“How much is that?” she asked.

His jaw twitched and he looked away. “A lot.”

“Okay,” she said. He didn’t completely trust her, and why would he? He’d just met her yesterday. “It must be a hard way to live.”

“What must be? What are you talking about?” He tilted his head, looking confused, as if she was speaking a foreign language.

“Having to be on guard every minute. Viewing everyone you meet, everyone you contact, with suspicion. Not being able to trust anyone, even the people closest to you.”

His eyes flickered, and before he looked away, she saw pain, quickly hidden. “It is,” he said after a long moment. “I haven’t been on a date in two years. The people in my lab go out for beers occasionally, but I never go with them. The only people I trust are guys like Dev, people I knew before I developed this program. And there aren’t very many of them. I’ve lost contact with most of my old friends.” He shrugged. “We went to different schools. Chose different paths.”

“That’ll change once your program is copyrighted, patented and released,” she said. “Then no one can steal it.”

“No, but things won’t be that different. Then I’ll have to worry that everyone who wants to be my friend, everyone who wants to date me, is after my money.”

She hadn’t expected this response. It wasn’t consistent with the man she’d met yesterday. That guy had been reasonable. He’d been self-editing. Willing to admit he was wrong.

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